A Tasmanian fraudster who lured three close friends into a fake Harley Davidson importation scheme has been jailed after conning $208,000 out of his victims – much of it while already on bail for stealing.
Andrew Charlton Tonks, 45, pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud committed between June 2014 and August 2015.
The Harley Davidson con was the centrepiece.
Tonks told three friends his company had a contract to import the motorcycles from the United States and could buy them at production cost, promising profits of between $5,500 and $6,800 a bike.
One friend took out a $48,000 loan to buy four. Another put in $24,000 and a third $18,000.
To reel in one of them, Tonks forged an email made to look like it came from a Harley Davidson asset manager, complete with fake vehicle identification numbers and a sale price.
But the motorcycles never existed. Tonks spent the money paying down his overdrawn accounts, covering personal bills and withdrawing cash.
When his friends started asking where their returns were, he stalled them with excuses, fake screenshots of bank transfers and cheques that bounced.
Most of that offending was committed while Tonks was on bail over six counts of stealing from a former employer – money he had pocketed instead of banking.
He had been sentenced for that dishonesty to a suspended six-month jail term, but it did not deter him.
It was not his only scam. Tonks also deposited nine dud cheques worth $200,300 into an overdrawn ANZ credit card, then siphoned off $80,000 in cash advances before the cheques bounced.
And he sold a man a Nissan Navara for $38,000 using a forged letter that claimed the ute was free of finance.
It was not – the car still owed $62,795, leaving the buyer to pay $25,000 to keep it.
Justice Kate Cuthbertson said Tonks’ conduct towards his friends was a “gross breach of trust”.
She said he had “callously” taken their money after losing the job he had been stealing from and that the suspended sentence hanging over him had failed to deter him.
She jailed him for 18 months and activated the suspended six-month prison sentence on top.
Tonks was also ordered to pay about $163,500 in compensation.
